WASHINGTON — Davis Martin made his major-league debut with the White Sox three years ago, but he’s just now getting around to thinking of himself as a major-league player.
Martin wasn’t convinced of that by the 4⅓ solid innings he tossed against a potent, Aaron Judge-led offense in his final start of the season at Yankee Stadium.
It wasn’t reflecting on his newfound role as a mentor to a stable of young pitchers trying to stake out spots in the Sox’ rebuilding future that convinced Martin of it, either.
For the 28-year-old starter, it was just getting to the finish line.
Martin got an early hook Thursday from manager Will Venable, but “regardless of the result, it was going to be a celebration of just making it through a full year,” Martin said.
“Coming up in ’22, I was asked, ‘Did you feel like being a big leaguer?’ And I told myself I’d never feel like a big leaguer until I finished from Opening Day till the end of the year,” Martin said. “It’s a goal I’ve had for a really long time. I put a lot of work in, put a lot of hours in. It’s a really cool feeling.”
Cool for Martin and the Sox were the 142⅔ innings he covered in 26 games, going 7-10 with a 4.10 ERA with 104 strikeouts in his first full season.
They’re hardly overwhelming numbers, but they mean a lot to a guy who was sidelined for the entire 2023 campaign and the first half of last season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
“There’s definitely some more room to grow, obviously, but I’m very happy with where my stuff is. I feel like I have an arsenal that I don’t have to tweak anymore,” Martin said. “I can go into next year saying, ‘This is what I’ve got,’ and just hone in on that all offseason.”
Even cooler for the Sox were the bonds Martin forged with other members of a young rotation he helped shepherd, especially after the departures of more seasoned veterans Adrian Houser and Aaron Civale, plus the elbow injury that cost Martin Perez most of his season.
Seven years since the Sox took a 14th-round flier on the 6-2 righty out of Texas Tech, it’s easy to forget Martin’s only a few years older than most of the youngsters populating the clubhouse these days.
He’ll head into 2026 providing the Sox two things they desperately need: a reliable arm for a rotation full of question marks, and veteran wisdom — in substance, if not service time.
“When I got here he struck me as a guy that had been around a long time,” the first-year skipper Venable said. “It’s just how he carries himself, like a veteran that knows what he’s doing out there. And he does.”
It’s a presence that helped turn Rule 5 Draft rookie Shane Smith into an All-Star, and is helping hurlers Sean Burke and Jonathan Cannon navigate late-season sophomore slumps.
Sure, they talk shop, but “you can only talk about your repertoire and how you use it on hitters so much,” said Smith, who’s known as Uncle Shane to Martin’s toddler son, Doak.
“Davis is three years older than me, but you wouldn’t be able to tell — in a good way,” Smith caught himself before the Sox’ series opener in Washington Friday. “Just being somebody that we can bounce ideas off of, about life, about off-the-field stuff that you’re not gonna talk to everybody in the clubhouse about. I’m super thankful to have him this year.”
The invitations have already been sent for Martin’s rotation mates to join him on the family ranch in Texas during the offseason.
The first reaction from Boston-area city boys Burke and Smith? “What the heck is a ranch?” Smith recalled.
But he wants to make the trip for a friend.
“We want to be around each other. We want to be with each other,” Martin said. “We enjoy each other’s presence, which is a huge thing in the locker room.”
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